So my time in Melbourne has come to an end. 9 months in one
place was a bit of a luxury after what the previous 6 months had entailed but I
hafta say I enjoyed every minute! Last time we spoke wa Christmas I think. So
much has happened since then. Much of it significant, lots of it not. But
summing it all up in a blog will be a challenge but fuck it I can’t be arsed
writing two so I’ll keep it brief.
First off I’m delighted I chose Melbourne to come to. It’s a
real happening place. Officially the most liveable city in the world (Don’t
believe me ask Mr Google), really lived up to its name. In a way it reminded me
of what Ireland was like before the recession. People earning shit loads of
cash for not doing very much and loving life as a result. Melbourne is just
simply bars, coffee, beaches, ice cream, more bars, more coffee more good
times. It would be a mystery to me why anyone would not want to live there,
except maybe the weather is shit in winter that’s all I can think of. The
transport system gives me a hard on as well..
So I started my job on January 3rd working for
Tru Energy in an Inbound Customer
Services role. For those of you that don’t know: that is the posh way of saying
call centre. But it was actually a good job. We got ridiculous money like $28ph
as well as 4 weeks paid training and huge amounts of training and support for
the first 3 weeks on the phones too. By the end of my contract I was getting a
bit sick of the repetitiveness of constantly answering calls but we had a great
team and good managers which made it much more fun than it would have been. The
team I was on eventually dwindled down to about 15 people. Half Ozzies half
travellers it was like the United Nations in there: English, Irish, Scottish,
American, Mexican, Indian and more. It was really fun working with everyone
there. We went out nearly every Friday after work together and got royally
boozed up which as you know is one of my favourite things to do… The job has made
me think a lot about work and what I want to do in the future. It’s certainly
made me more aware of the fact that you can’t take life too serious and maybe
I’m not cut out for the office life.. But I do also enjoy earning shit loads of
cash and am aware you have to work hard for it.. Mmmm food for thought…
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| Friday Club |
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| Friday Love... |
So the main reason I chose Melbourne was for the comedy
festival. The Melbourne Comedy Festival running in March and April for 3 and a
half weeks is the 3rd biggest in the world after Montreal and Edinburgh
and was something I desperately wanted to be involved in when I knew I’d be
down this end of the world. So just before Christmas I made arrangements to do
a nightly slot at Pugg Mahone’s Bar in the city with some other Irish comics during
the fest. As a result this motivated me to do as many gigs as possible in
January, February and March. I was gigging everywhere I could; 3-4 times a week
sometimes. The highlight of which was being joint winner of the Search for a
Funny Bone Competition and getting to play in the National theatre in Melbourne
to 700 people!
Before I knew it the
festival had arrived and I did 28 gigs in a row. The first 3 gigs including
opening night were awesome. Great, festival crowds, big laughs proper hecklers.
I was finally here…
Originally I had applied for time off work but I removed my
request as I was only getting part time hours so I decided I could manage to
work through it. However, less than a week into the festival we got moved up to
full time which meant I was gigging whilst working full time…
This was fine for the first few days but after 2 weeks of
this I was properly wrecked. It was like working 2 jobs and at times it was
hard to go straight from work, stand on a street corner and hand out flyers for
2 hours and then be funny to 20 people for 20 minutes. I felt myself draining
and looking forward to the end of the fest sometimes dreading to have to go up
an emotion I had never felt towards comedy before. It was weird. Alien to me.
People talk about the ups and downs of comedy. The highs and
the lows as it were. This was never more apparent as week no 2 of the fest. The
Monday night was media night. This meant we were getting reviewed. I was very
nervous about this. By some miracle we had a packed house (1 of only 5 for the
whole fest!) and I rocked it. Seriously I killed. Huge laughs, perfect crowd
interaction and huge appreciation from the audience. I came off buzzing I was
so relieved the gig had been a good one. Two days later the review came out and
my spirits went from flying high with the clouds to right down as low as the
shit at the bottom of Loch Ness. The review was awful. Granted it was 2 and a
half stars and said I had energy but it wasn’t pleasant. I will forever be
haunted by the words “Mouldy Bread.” I had never been reviewed before and the
experience was bizarre. It took me quite a while to get over it and realise
that you can’t please everyone. The crowd on the night enjoyed it. This one guy
didn’t. The fact that he had access to the Herald Sun was unfortunate. However,
the references to being stereotypical also held a kernel of truth and that is
something that I will learn from. That. My friends. Is a lesson learnt. BOOM
So needless to say, after the festival I kicked comedy in
the arse. I didn’t do a gig for about 5 weeks as I recovered. This time was
spent with my friends. Three gigs a week was replaced with 3 sessions in the
local Banff where Beer and Pizza were the norm. By the end of my time in
Melbourne I had become very close to my friends. A theme I’ve noticed since
travelling is it’s the people you’re with that make it. You could be in the
best place in the world but if you’re hanging with dickheads you’re gonna have
a shit time. This was the case with school, with work, with my Odyssey trip and
again with Melbourne. As the guys in Tru energy made it an enjoyable place to
work so too my friends made Melbourne an awesome place to live. There’s too
many good sessions to talk about as I’ve been blabbing on for ages now and
you’re probably bored. Some highlights however include but are not limited to:
1.
Lazy Sundays hanging at the beach
2.
Creamy Guinness with Jack, Pete and Andy (And
Cider for Pete 2!)
3.
Banff sessions with Trace and the guys
4.
Being chucked out of Night Cat with Pete
(although that’s not technically a memory)
5.
Taking the piss out of Aisling
6.
Road trips down the Great Ocean Road and the
Mornington Peninsula
7.
Cat and Politics arguments with Jenna, Roisin
and Tom
8.
Grooming with Tracy
9.
Everything to do with Mum and Nan’s visit
10.
FRIDAY CLUB
Ok that’s enough soppy shit. As
you’ve probably guessed I loved Melbourne. An amazing place where I met some
people that will be added to my ever growing list of lifelong friends.. But all
good things must come to an end and I’ve decided to do another year here which means
I must do 88 days of farm work to obtain a second year visa.
But that story is for another
blog…………… (how very theatrical of me)
Talk Soon folks….
